Weekly Daf #279

Beitza 20 - 26 Issue #279
2 - 8 Tammuz 5759 / 16 - 22 June 1999

Mystery of the Missing Sage

One holiday, the Sage Shimon of Timnah failed to
appear in the beit midrash where he regularly
studied with his colleagues. When Rabbi Yehuda
ben Bava asked why he was absent, he explained that a
band of heathen marauders had descended upon his community, and they were busy appeasing these invaders so
that they would not steal from them. They achieved this,
he added, by slaughtering a calf, cooking it for them and
serving them a satisfying meal.

This explanation did not find favor in the eyes of Rabbi
Yehuda ben Bava, who suggested that this saving of money
was offset by the blame they incurred for violating the
holiday. The Torah's permission to cook on a holiday, he
reminded him, was limited to cooking for Jews and not for
others.

Attempting to understand Shimon of Timnah's rationale, the gemara first suggests that this cooking was permitted because the marauders would certainly not have
objected to their Jewish cooks helping themselves to a little of the meat. The cooking was therefore done for the
benefit of Jews as well.

This approach is rejected, however, because if Jews had
been able to partake of that calf's meat, Rabbi Yehuda ben
Bava would not have challenged his colleague's action.
We must therefore conclude that the animal in question
was treifah and forbidden for Jewish consumption. This
leaves but one justification for the holiday cooking of
Shimon of Timnah &endash that a part of that treifah animal
could be fed to animals which belonged to Jews.

The conflict between these two sages thus boils down
to whether a Jew may cook on a holiday to feed his animals. This issue is actually debated by Rabbi Akiva and
Rabbi Yossi the Galilite, with the former contending that
the Torah permitted cooking to feed one's animal and the
latter arguing that it is forbidden.

What is the logic, asks the gemara, for the view which
permits cooking for your animal while prohibiting it for
serving to a non-Jew? The answer is that feeding your animal is your responsibility, while another human can fend
for himself.

The halachic ruling, however, is that cooking for an animal on a holiday is forbidden (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim
512:3) though it is permitted to trouble yourself to feed
your animals on Shabbat and holidays.

(Beitza 21)

A Bold People

"Chutzpah" is a Hebrew word that has already
become a part of the English language. Is boldness, however, a truly Jewish characteristic?
Jews are the boldest of peoples, said Rabbi Shimon ben
Lakish; and Rabbi Meir saw a connection between this characteristic and being chosen from amongst the nations to
receive the Torah.

Maharsha explains that there are two sides to the coin of
boldness. A bashful person, says the Sage Hillel (Pirkei Avot
2:6) cannot succeed in Torah study. Only if one is bold
enough to ask, to challenge and to debate can he truly learn
Torah. On the other hand, however, if boldness is not tempered, it can prevent one from having a true respect for
Divine authority. Their natural boldness, therefore, qualified
the Jews to receive the Torah, to whose profound wisdom
they would do justice with their capacity to search for truth
without reservations. This Torah would then channel their
boldness into a positive drive for intellectual and spiritual
perfection and instill in them humility in their relationship to
Heaven.

This controlling effect of Torah on Jewish boldness was
once cited by a leading European rabbi to a ruler of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire who looked with favor upon Jews
abandoning their Torah and assimilating. "Torah is what controls the boldness of my people," he told the emperor. "As
long as we abide by our Torah and express our boldness in
search of its wisdom, we are the most loyal of citizens to
your majesty. But if we abandon this control, who knows if
our grandchildren will not someday be involved in a bold
challenge to your grandchildren!"

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